Berkeley Gold Swamp Sunflower. This native perennial is a Dr. Patrick McMillan find in Berkeley County, South Carolina, and it was introduced by Plant Delights Nursery in 2025. Patrick is the former director of the South Carolina Botanical Garden at Clemson. This species is native from New Jersey to Texas. It is one of our best native perennials, and will often blanket rural ditch banks where mowing is shunned. 'Berkeley Gold' is a truly outstanding selection of this wonderful native, which will cover itself with flowers in October. Plant Delights describes it as an "amazing form which is much tighter, more compact, and more floriferous than is typical with the species". This species can normally get 6-7 ft. but the unique aspect about this selection is that it will only get 3 ft. high, but it can have a spread up to 7 ft., making a mound of gold in early fall. This is truly a magnificent selection of one of our more showy native fall bloomers.
Zone 6-9
